


It seems I might actually like you

by nurturedwhims



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Romance, Sharing a Bed, lydia is brilliant, stiles related things, though it can take her a while to realise certain things
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-11-02
Updated: 2014-11-02
Packaged: 2018-02-23 15:51:38
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,237
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2553164
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nurturedwhims/pseuds/nurturedwhims
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Lydia had lost count of the number of times Stiles had asked her out.</p><p>It took her an interaction with a useless pack and too many partners on both of their parts for her to realise she wanted to rethink her always negative answer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	It seems I might actually like you

“Lydia, light of my life, would you care to attend this dinner with me?”

“You wish Stilinski.” She pats his cheek, and he grins at her. “I am going with Brian and I know for a fact you already promised to be Erica’s date with Boyd away.”

“You ruin my fun Martin. One day I’ll break you down.” Stiles hit on Lydia so frequently it became a game for them, him greeting her with a smile and constant refrains of asking for dates. Lydia rolls her eyes each time as she turns him down, but smiles to herself nonetheless. Stiles is a lot of things but he respects Lydia, knows her in a reality beyond the facade she put up in school or in the role she plays in the pack, wants to be with her in spite of that, or, she quietly muses, because of it.

Lydia rolls through boyfriends in college, some still think they stand a chance of being smarter than her, some think she became the professor’s favourite because of her looks, most still don’t think beauty and intelligence can coincide, keep waiting for one of the two to drop. They don’t typically stick around for very long.

Stiles finds people to date as well. Girls with coloured hair and flowing skirts who speak too much about spirits they are ignorant of. Boys who are too nervous, too twitchy; who could never cope in Stiles’ real life. More than one leaves Stiles after seeing him with Lydia, sometimes he forgets he can’t compliment her so profusely when he is meant to be dating someone else. She tries not to smile too obviously when he tells her. The relationship between them became unclear years ago. Double lines of friendship and attraction running through the years, at times one is stronger than the other; but they have become so tangled, so interwoven, it is hard to tell which is which, which is the strongest. Lydia can’t follow know how much of the repeated pining is the truth, how much is just what their friendship has become, only Stiles’ habit, and how much is a reality.

Lydia doesn’t know why she takes such pleasure when each of Stiles’ relationships fall through. She definitely knows it is not jealousy, it is definitely not that she wants to curl into Stiles’ during a movie like Jessie did, or have him whisper things into her ear like he persisted in doing with Amy. It’s not jealously. It’s not.

 

The supernaturally inclined assume she is on the outskirts of the pack, that they have a chance of breaking her off from the rest with lures of power or, more often than not, threats. It was something she should have seen coming, only she had been up all night prepping for a coming presentation at a national conference, wasn’t aware as she had taught herself to be after so many years in the supernatural world. She is waking herself over a steaming coffee, going over the notes she has already memorised and wondering if Stiles will happen upon her, he visits this café too. When two people slide into her booth she wasn’t prepared, finds herself trapped between by two hulking men who radiate danger.

“Miss Martin, you will come to meet with our alpha. Quickly now, there will be no need for a scene.” The words come from the one beside her who smells too strongly of old fish and started lengthening his claws out along the table as he spoke.

Lydia thinks quickly. She could get away, maybe not entirely scratch free but she could lose them. Though her two new companions could come back, and the pack would have no idea who they were fighting. Or she could go to the alpha, risk whatever waits for her, but get information they could actually work with. As she starts to speak a movement catches her eye, Stiles in a bright sweater standing at the other end of the café. He wasn’t looking at her, focused instead on the coffee board in front of him. Anyone else would mistake the hand taping against his leg as a fidget, meaningless. The single tap of three fingers followed _Scott_ by a stroke of his hand _breathe_ tells her all she needs to know. He gets out his phone, swipes quick fingers across the screen. This being the situation, Stiles being here with her, Lydia’s choice is simple.

She follows the men outside, not meeting their eyes because playing meek is the best option here and she is smart enough to know that. Stiles tracks her movement outside, literally as she moves further from him and his eyes can’t follow her. The chain around her neck seems warmer, knowledge of the chip within it that beams back to his phone a comfort. The men barely focus on her, blindfold her with too big hands and tie loose knots around her wrist as she is thrown into a van. Lydia rolls her covered eyes, it would be almost too easy to escape, they haven’t even checked her for weapons.

Lydia is pulled from the car by the one that stinks of fish, makes herself trip over the flat ground because people still don’t understand how powerful underestimation can be. She idly thinks of Stiles current partner, Lucy, who won’t be happy because they were meant to have a lunch date today. Lydia shakes her head; now was not the time to focus on something so far from any relevance.

The alpha is only minimally more competent than his betas. They demand ‘everything she can tell them about the McCall pack, or else.’ Lydia mumbles through the lies about the pack location, still technically true to werewolf ears because the old apartment she names had been their head-quarters at one stage and Kira, Boyd and Erica hadn’t always been with Scott, so the numbers she rattles off aren’t lies either.

Lydia fights the argument that nearly spills from her throat when the alpha says, “So who’s your mate sweetheart? We might let them be if you cooperate.”

She doesn’t understand why so many packs still think humans can only be a part of them if they are mated to someone. Responds instead with false confusion, “Mates? What do you mean?”

It is almost too easy to find out that this group she is dealing with want to take over the McCall territory, think it is unprotected while so many of the pack are in various colleges. They really did just want information from Lydia, seem to think their next step will be to walk in and takeover. There are only six of them, four are here in the room. Lydia would feel sorry for them, they can’t be very effective if they have so severely underestimated their enemy, but the kidnapping offset any thoughts of pity.

Scott arrives with Allison and Stiles. Allison announcing their arrival with an arrow to one of the betas shoulders that chars the flesh on contact and Scott shifted and loud as he runs across the room, sinking teeth and claws into the second beta. The alpha is slow to move, makes a vague effort to put Lydia in between himself and Stiles’ gun, doesn’t pay attention to where Issac has entered behind them and is easily trapped on the floor under the beta. Stiles turns his gun on the final were that was hovering uncertainly, undecided between helping its alpha and escape.

Lydia has untied the ropes constraining her wrists by the time the scuffles have stopped, uses the rope infused with wolfsbane Allison handed her to tie the alpha in far better knots than they had managed on her. Scott spoke to them, his voice loud echoing in the room.

“This will be the last time we hear from you. My pack has ties throughout the country, Beacon Hills is protected, and you made an enemy of this pack when you made an unwarranted attack of one of us. We can and will punish you if you dare approach us again.”

It was similar to what Lydia had heard before. Stiles always mocked Scott’s hero speech, but at least it seemed to work. They had only needed to deal with another pack more than once before. They hadn’t survived to a third time.

 

Lydia finds Stiles fall in step beside her as they leave, the other pack in various states of movement on the ground behind them. “You are okay right?”

Lydia turns to smile at him, “I’m fine Stilinski. Those idiots didn’t even scratch me.”

“Thank goodness.” Stiles gave an exaggerated sigh, “we wouldn’t want any injuries to ruin our date tonight.”

Lydia laughed, “Careful now, I’m not sure what your girlfriend would think of you propositioning me.”

“Ah and that is where the marvellous Ms Martin is incorrect, for I am as free as a bird.” He elaborated when Lydia raised her eyebrows at him, “She broke up with me when I cancelled on our date today, one time too many it would seem.”

“Ah, I’m sorry about that.” Lydia fought the urge to give him a hug or to tell him ‘thank god.’

Stiles looked down, “It’s okay, she thought the moon landing was a conspiracy, it never would have worked.”

Allison hugged her when they got out of the car and they arrived back at Scott’s and Stiles’ shared house slash the pack base. She let herself be pampered, which meant her choice of movie and take away [ _Love Actually_ and Thai respectively] and fell into a chaotic sleep in the spare bedroom.

All night Lydia couldn’t shake the knowledge of Stiles sleeping next door to her. Then she fell asleep into dreams about fish men and worlds made of scratching rope. She woke gasping for air as ropes had pulled her deep into a sea. The sheets were messed around her, her heart pounding in her ears and her brow damp with sweat.

She moved into the kitchen, hoping a drink would calm her still racing heart.

“Lyds, you okay?” Stiles’ voice nearly made her drop her water, she placed it shakily down on the bench, turned to his figure that was illuminated by a dull light coming from her room.

“I’m fine, only a bad dream.”

He came closer, caught her hands between his. She noticed almost mechanically he was only wearing boxers. Let herself focus instead on his earnest face. “Lydia you are allowed to be not okay. You were taken today. And yes, I know you had everything under control, but that doesn’t mean it can’t affect you.”

Lydia found herself falling into him, letting his arms come around her. “I really was okay. I just…” She didn’t really know what was wrong. She was fine. Well, she would be. She pulled in a shaky breath against Stiles’ shoulder, “I’m not sure I can get back to sleep. Do you think, maybe, I could come to your bed?”

“Of course, let me just get my pillow so I can go to the couch.”

Lydia huffed against the warm skin in front of her, “No you idiot, I was assuming you would stay in the bed.”

Stiles stilled the hand that rubbed comforting circles into her back. “Oh, right. Of course.”

He lead her into his bedroom, not dropping contact with her, holding her hand as he turned off the lights again and they moved under the covers. He moved with hesitant movements, shifting in the bed and starting to pull away from her, Lydia stopped the movements by pulling his arm across her. She fell asleep with Stiles warm and soft against her back. The nightmares didn’t come back.

 

Lydia woke the least tired she had been in a long time, Stiles sleeping beside her and the smell of pancakes already drifting from the kitchen. She disentangled herself from him, kissed his temple lightly as she moved from the bed, crept into the kitchen. Scott was moving around, greeted her with a mug of steaming coffee and didn’t say anything about her night, though he surely must have realised the sound of two heartbeats from Stiles’ room.

Stiles smiled softly at her when he entered a short while later and ate half a pancake from Scott’s plate. “Morning all.” He didn’t try to hold Lydia’s hand like last night, focused on talking loudly about the newest book he was reading, Lydia tried very hard to ignore the lost feeling that crept into her.

When Stiles was leaving he called out a loud goodbye to Scott who was busy in the garden outside and gave Lydia a gentle hug. “I guess I’ll see you tonight.”

“What for?”

Stiles smiled down at her, eyes bright and open, “For our date.”

And it would be so easy to laugh it off as she had dozens of times before, Stiles would never hold it against her, and they could both keep dating other people as they had. Maybe manage to fall in love. But she smiled back, because it was for so long an impossibility and then for so many years an inevitability, and knew that she wouldn’t need to find someone else to fall in love, wouldn’t need to find someone who loved her. She had someone already who she could love back.

“Okay Stilinski. I suppose I’ll be see you at seven.”

**Author's Note:**

> So this is was my first Teen Wolf fic on AO3. Let me know what you think!  
> You can find me on tumblr, nurturedwhims.tumblr.com, where I write little things and reblog impressive fan art.  
> Thankyou for reading!


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